373 VOLUME 10 |ISSUE 1 |2019
Correspondents
,
Reports
Report From Spain and
Latin America
Luis Santamaria
Translated by Erika Toren
On September 26, 2018, the Bar
Association of Madrid hosted the
presentation of the book Las sectas
en Derecho Penal (Cults and Criminal
Law), highlighting the doctoral thesis
and research of the young lawyer
Carlos Bardavío. Within his 1,000-
page thesis is deep research into the
cult phenomenon from the penal
point of view he goes as far as to
propose listing the crime of “coercive
persuasion” as a new official offense.
According to Facebook, the young
Spanish woman Patricia Aguilar, hand-
picked by a small gnostic cult leader
in Peru, was rescued and returned
to Spain in August, along with her
child, begotten with the leader in the
cult. According to her cousin and a
family spokesperson, Aguilar and her
family, together with lawyer Carlos
Bardavío, are leading a petition on
change.org that calls for a reform of
the Criminal Code in Spain that would
end the lack of protection victims of
cultic manipulation and their families
currently experience.
Groups of Christian Origin
In July 2018, the Court of Appeals
in Santiago, Chile ordered a blood
transfusion for a Jehovah’s Witness
member who was on the verge of
death after having received the
petition from Hospital San José that
followed a constitutional provision
to “ensure life and the physical and
mental integrity” of the patient.
Subsequently, in August, the Supreme
Court of Mexico ordered a blood
transfusion for a 6-year-old boy and
son of Jehovah’s Witness members,
who was sick with leukemia.
In a welcoming ceremony to the
Light of the World Church of Christ,
celebrated in August 2018 in
Guadalajara, Mexico, the spokesman
for the group confirmed that they
have registered an average of 50,000
new baptisms every 3 months. This
figure would represent a 22 percent
annual increase and a total of almost
five million members around the
world. However, according to critics,
the adepts in Mexico do not reach
15 million members as reported, but
instead are closer to 200,000.
In Brazil, the press has pointed to
one of the deciding factors behind
the election victory of Jair Bolsonaro
this past October 28 as the direct
support of Edir Macedo, millionaire
founder and leader of the Universal
Church of the Kingdom of God. Before
the elections, in more than seven
thousand chapters of the group,
members prayed against the rival
opponent and the media that are
owned by the cult also supported
Bolsonaro.
Eastern Groups
Eduardo de Dios Nicosia, known as
Swami Vivekayuktananda, founder of
one of the first yoga schools in Buenos
Aires in 1965, has been prosecuted
by a federal judge in Argentina after
receiving a large list of accusations:
trafficking for sexual and labor
exploitation reduction to servitude
aggravating factors such as fraud and
threats and the use of his authority
as Minister of Worship, torture and
humiliation, and aggravated sexual
abuse. In July 2018, the founder was
arrested alongside other leaders of
his group in a hotel they own in Mar
del Plata, Argentina, where authorities
also found a significant number of
weapons.
Esoteric, Human Potential, and
New Age
On June 23, 2018, David Miscavige,
President of the Church of
Scientology, received the Medal of
Transparency, granted by the National
Police of Colombia. The award
was given to Miscavige by General
Carlos Ramiro Mena Bravo, a retired
policeman in Bridgetown, Barbados.
According to Miscavige, he received
this medal for “saving humanity from
violence, evil, terrorism, drugs and all
other negative factors that threaten”
the earth. The granting of this award
to him started an important political
controversy that has allowed the
public to see the many connections
between Scientology and the police
and military forces in Colombia,
including the fact that the group has
been delivering training on human
rights and regarding its book The Way
to Happiness.
In Argentina, there have been two
large police operations against the
consumption of ayahuasca. The first
was in August 2018 and resulted
in the arrest of three people in the
middle of a ritual in Cordoba. The
second was in September in the same
city and resulted in the arrest of an
additional three people. In this second
case, seven minors were present at
the ritual. Additionally in September,
a 33-year-old engineer died in Arica,
Chile after taking ayahuasca.
Chinchilla de Montearegon, Albacete,
Spain hosted the first International
Olympics of Volunteers, organized by
the School of Sports With Heart, an
NGO that is a new platform for the
esoteric and paramilitary movement
New Acropolis (with theosophical
roots). New Acropolis is listed by the
European Parliament as “neo-fascist.”
The group is organizing its activities
with the support of the Spanish
Olympic Committee. n
Note
[1] See https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/
news/league_for_human_rights_
presses_officials_to_
probe_jehovahs_
witnesses_other_religious_
groups/10107546 and
helsinkitimes.fi/
finland/finland-news/
domestic/10435-the-end-of-the-
world.html
Correspondents
,
Reports
Report From Spain and
Latin America
Luis Santamaria
Translated by Erika Toren
On September 26, 2018, the Bar
Association of Madrid hosted the
presentation of the book Las sectas
en Derecho Penal (Cults and Criminal
Law), highlighting the doctoral thesis
and research of the young lawyer
Carlos Bardavío. Within his 1,000-
page thesis is deep research into the
cult phenomenon from the penal
point of view he goes as far as to
propose listing the crime of “coercive
persuasion” as a new official offense.
According to Facebook, the young
Spanish woman Patricia Aguilar, hand-
picked by a small gnostic cult leader
in Peru, was rescued and returned
to Spain in August, along with her
child, begotten with the leader in the
cult. According to her cousin and a
family spokesperson, Aguilar and her
family, together with lawyer Carlos
Bardavío, are leading a petition on
change.org that calls for a reform of
the Criminal Code in Spain that would
end the lack of protection victims of
cultic manipulation and their families
currently experience.
Groups of Christian Origin
In July 2018, the Court of Appeals
in Santiago, Chile ordered a blood
transfusion for a Jehovah’s Witness
member who was on the verge of
death after having received the
petition from Hospital San José that
followed a constitutional provision
to “ensure life and the physical and
mental integrity” of the patient.
Subsequently, in August, the Supreme
Court of Mexico ordered a blood
transfusion for a 6-year-old boy and
son of Jehovah’s Witness members,
who was sick with leukemia.
In a welcoming ceremony to the
Light of the World Church of Christ,
celebrated in August 2018 in
Guadalajara, Mexico, the spokesman
for the group confirmed that they
have registered an average of 50,000
new baptisms every 3 months. This
figure would represent a 22 percent
annual increase and a total of almost
five million members around the
world. However, according to critics,
the adepts in Mexico do not reach
15 million members as reported, but
instead are closer to 200,000.
In Brazil, the press has pointed to
one of the deciding factors behind
the election victory of Jair Bolsonaro
this past October 28 as the direct
support of Edir Macedo, millionaire
founder and leader of the Universal
Church of the Kingdom of God. Before
the elections, in more than seven
thousand chapters of the group,
members prayed against the rival
opponent and the media that are
owned by the cult also supported
Bolsonaro.
Eastern Groups
Eduardo de Dios Nicosia, known as
Swami Vivekayuktananda, founder of
one of the first yoga schools in Buenos
Aires in 1965, has been prosecuted
by a federal judge in Argentina after
receiving a large list of accusations:
trafficking for sexual and labor
exploitation reduction to servitude
aggravating factors such as fraud and
threats and the use of his authority
as Minister of Worship, torture and
humiliation, and aggravated sexual
abuse. In July 2018, the founder was
arrested alongside other leaders of
his group in a hotel they own in Mar
del Plata, Argentina, where authorities
also found a significant number of
weapons.
Esoteric, Human Potential, and
New Age
On June 23, 2018, David Miscavige,
President of the Church of
Scientology, received the Medal of
Transparency, granted by the National
Police of Colombia. The award
was given to Miscavige by General
Carlos Ramiro Mena Bravo, a retired
policeman in Bridgetown, Barbados.
According to Miscavige, he received
this medal for “saving humanity from
violence, evil, terrorism, drugs and all
other negative factors that threaten”
the earth. The granting of this award
to him started an important political
controversy that has allowed the
public to see the many connections
between Scientology and the police
and military forces in Colombia,
including the fact that the group has
been delivering training on human
rights and regarding its book The Way
to Happiness.
In Argentina, there have been two
large police operations against the
consumption of ayahuasca. The first
was in August 2018 and resulted
in the arrest of three people in the
middle of a ritual in Cordoba. The
second was in September in the same
city and resulted in the arrest of an
additional three people. In this second
case, seven minors were present at
the ritual. Additionally in September,
a 33-year-old engineer died in Arica,
Chile after taking ayahuasca.
Chinchilla de Montearegon, Albacete,
Spain hosted the first International
Olympics of Volunteers, organized by
the School of Sports With Heart, an
NGO that is a new platform for the
esoteric and paramilitary movement
New Acropolis (with theosophical
roots). New Acropolis is listed by the
European Parliament as “neo-fascist.”
The group is organizing its activities
with the support of the Spanish
Olympic Committee. n
Note
[1] See https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/
news/league_for_human_rights_
presses_officials_to_
probe_jehovahs_
witnesses_other_religious_
groups/10107546 and
helsinkitimes.fi/
finland/finland-news/
domestic/10435-the-end-of-the-
world.html
